After a brief opening at the Tuscaloosa Chamber of Commerce meeting on Friday, Sept. 30, Alabama's athletic director Greg Byrne replied to questions on in-venue music playlists, the status of the Coleman Coliseum renovations, and the state of the school's emerging baseball program.

Alabama's baseball team, which made it to their first NCAA regional in seven seasons this past summer, is certainly on the right track according to Byrne.

"I'm very excited about our baseball program with what coach Bohannon's been doing," said Byrne.

Coach Brad Bohannon has been with the program since 2018 and has a 105-82 overall record since taking the reins.

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"He took over a very challenging situation," Byrne said when discussing the coach's early time with the team.

"And we're making good strides. Last year was a big step in making it back to the SEC tournament."

When he was asked about the school's scholarships for baseball and the program's future, Byrne referenced other conference schools' use of academic scholarships to supplement the maximum of 11.7 baseball scholarships allowed to each division 1 school by the NCAA.

Alabama baseball's advantage? Well, according to Byrne and Bohannon, it's the school's athletic prowess itself.

"He [Bohannon] told me when he would be at these two schools [Auburn and Kentucky], he'd call up to the northeast, he'd call up to Canada, he'd call the west coast and he'd say 'Hi, I'm Brad Bohannon from this school' and sometimes they'd call back – sometimes they didn't.

Byrne continued, "'But when I call and say "I'm from Alabama," everybody calls back.' And that's a strength for us."

When the AD moved on to what the program can do to set itself apart, especially from the other conference school in the state, he highlighted the importance of keeping the state's best high school players for the state's flagship university, in Tuscaloosa, AL.

According to Prep Baseball Report, Alabama has locked in commitments from two of the state's top-10 players for 2022, including RHP Carter Stanford (No. 10) and LHP Alton Davis II (No. 4).

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